The Climate Isn’t Waiting: It's Changing Anyway

We have to face it, global warming isn’t just a distant threat for our children’s children to worry about. It’s here and accelerating. Despite vague (half-hearted at best) efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the climate is shifting already. That means that climate adaptation, alongside mitigation, is now absolutely essential.

Take May 2025 for example. It is now officially the second-warmest May globally, 0.53 °C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.4 °C above pre-industrial levels. Fires erupted on Chios, Greece, forcing village evacuations and emergency responses, reminding us (once again) that fire season now runs all year long. All across Europe – Iceland, Italy, Spain, and France saw heatwave records break one after another.

Ireland’s Storm Éowyn: A Wake-Up Call

On 24 January 2025, Storm Éowyn unleashed record-breaking winds (gusts up to 184 km/h), downing trees, cancelling flights, and leaving nearly one-third of homes without power. Tragically, a man died when a fallen tree struck his vehicle.

Energy infrastructure struggled to cope with the damages done: 39,000 homes remained powerless ten days later; even after eleven days, hundreds were still offline. My home? My office? Yup – caught right in the chaos. We spent nearly two weeks without power. That meant:

• No heat
• No cooking
• No emails (which sounds relaxing... until it’s not)

It became very clear, very quickly: Ireland was not ready. Not even close. Storm Éowyn exposed major gaps (lessons learned the hard way:

• Emergency communication and power backup systems need serious work.
• Utility infrastructure (buried lines, diversification, etc) must be more resilient.
• We need faster, better mutual‑aid resources and systems for disaster response.

Adaptation plans must incorporate these lessons.

Why Mitigation and Adaptation Must Go Hand‑in‑Hand

We hear a lot about climate mitigation which aims at long term climate security. Cutting emissions is essential to limit global warming, reduce extreme event frequency, and avoid surpassing critical climate tipping points.

But climate adaptation is what will keep us afloat today (literally). Adaptation seeks immediate resilience.

Mitigation = prevention

Adaptation = preparation

With extreme natural events already at our doorstep, governments and communities need to:

1. Bolster disaster preparedness: To reinforce disaster preparedness, it is crucial to implement robust early warning systems that can alert communities ahead of extreme events. This should be complemented by regular emergency drills and the availability of well-equipped shelters to ensure people know how to respond and have safe places to go. Additionally, ensuring backup power sources and secure water supplies can help maintain essential services and protect vulnerable populations during and after disasters.
2. Strengthen critical infrastructure: Strengthening critical infrastructure involves reinforcing essential systems such as energy, telecommunications, and transportation to withstand extreme weather events. This includes hardening physical assets against damage and disruptions, as well as retrofitting buildings and utilities to improve their resilience and ensure continued functionality during crises.
3. Revise land planning & ecosystem resilience: Revising land planning and enhancing ecosystem resilience are key to reducing climate-related risks. This includes implementing floodplain zoning and building coastal defences to protect vulnerable areas from rising seas and storm surges. In wildfire-prone regions, creating defensible buffer zones and using controlled burns can help manage vegetation and reduce the intensity and spread of fires.
4. Empower communities: Empowering communities is essential for effective climate adaptation. This involves supporting local adaptation planning that reflects the specific needs and risks of each area, while also providing targeted funding to strengthen resilience in the most vulnerable communities. By involving local stakeholders and ensuring resources are equitably distributed, adaptation efforts become more inclusive, practical, and sustainable. 

Storm Éowyn made that clear: even countries with robust systems can fail when extremes bite hard. Climate change doesn’t care how advanced your economy is, if your systems aren’t built to withstand the extremes, they’ll break.

The past quarter has thrown everything at us. We’ve seen extreme heatwaves, floods, cyclones, wildfires across every inhabited continent. We must continue reducing emissions to curb long‑term warming. Simultaneously, climate adaptation, especially for emergency response and infrastructure resilience, is no longer optional; it’s essential.

Storm Éowyn was a wake-up call: resilience isn't theoretical, it’s literal. As we design future communities, energy systems, and disaster plans, we must treat them as climate‑ready from the ground up, not as optional upgrades.

Let’s embrace both transitions: to a low-carbon future and to one where communities can bounce back stronger when the unexpected arrives.

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 💚 FSG Team